Binky or not to Binky??

I have a theory that if I can put my 4 month old to bed without her pacifier (she settles to sleep just fine on her own) but yet use it during the day and in desperate "I need sleep" moments in the middle of the night...that she still won't get attached to it because she does not have it when she first settles down to sleep.  Since eventually there will be no more waking in the middle of the night and she doesn't need it when I put her down for the evening.  What do you other moms think?  Am I in dreamland?  My son never took a pacifier and my daughter will take one and when she is fighting sleep (during the day)  I can pop it in her mouth and she is out....I do take it out even before she is completely asleep and she seems to do fine.....opinions?  Advice?

Well, I'm not one to talk because my son was hooked on a pacifier from day one. He was just one of those babies that desperately needed to suck on something all the time. He was successfully breast fed until one year old and is weaning off of the pacifier now, so it seems to not have really hurt him. I think if you are not offering the pacifier on a regular basis it might not become a massive issue. If your daughter, for example, ALWAYS uses it to go down for naps or ALWAYS has it in her car seat, then it becomes a habit for her and part of her coping mechanism for getting through that particular event. If she has it infrequently and on a random basis, I think it might not be an addictive thing. That's just my best guess though - good luck! :-)

lpmrwexier2- I've never thought of that tactic before. It is interesting. The key here is to consider what the role of the binki is. In general binkis offer a way for your baby to self sooth when she is distressed. When trying to break a baby away from a binki i often suggest to parents that they replace the binki with another item that will replace the binki for self soothing. Often a blanket or stuffed animal can take it's place. If you think of it purely as a self soothing technique I can assure you that as your baby grows she will need other ways to self sooth. If you can help her build those into her coping skills you will help her significantly in life. Please do share with us how your experiment goes, Jess

So the main reason for my binky experiment was to avoid the waking every hour to place the paci back in my daughter's mouth whenever she got restless and was about to wake.  During the "paci olympics" she was not feeding at night anymore, so I thought to myself maybe she still needs that night time feeding even if she isn't waking completely and screaming for it.  So along with taking the paci away at night I also put the 1-3 am feeding back in her schedule and she sleeps much more soundly.  So in conclusion I think she just needed a fuller tummy instead of her paci.  She still doesnt seem to show much dependency on it and we still give it to her every now and then.  I just wish her night time feedings were more predictable...sometimes it's 1 am...sometimes it's 3am.  I tried "cluster feeding" but that doesn't seem to make her last through the evening any better.   

The idea is to get your baby used to putting herself to sleep without the aid of a pacifier. Some children learn to do this at 4 months old, while others take years to get it. My 2 year old still loves his pacifier at night. If your daughter can put herself to sleep without it, then encourage her to do so. It will make taking it away one day a lot easier.

I gave my son a binky when trying to put him to sleep. Then it got to the point where at night when he would suck so hard that it would pop out, and he would start getting fussy and crying. i just stopped giving it to him. Sometimes when giving him his night feeding he starts to doze off, i remove the bottle then he has a fit so i continue feeding until finished. Then i burp and put him to bed. The sucking from eating and the sucking to sleep makes him tired and finally falls asleep. My son has not had a binky from about age 1 1/2 to 2 months and he is almost 6 months old. But not every parent has the luck with that. Hope you can have some easy bed time experiences!!!

We just broke our daughter of her paci right before she turned two. We had been trying for months and no dice but then we told her that babies needed them more than she did and she was able to give it up. I thought she would be closer to four before we did.

So now with my son who is a lil over 3 weeks old, I'm going with ur technique giving it to him on occasion so I don't deal with the same problem.

Irispetals - my son is going to turn 2 soon and I am dreading taking the paci away. I guess I just need to be brave and go for it - glad to hear you had some success!! It makes me feel like it might not be so bad. ;-)